Control valve mechanism



July w. F. BOLDT f 2,323,788

CONTROL VALVE MECHANISM Filed April 20, 1942 K 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR.5901. or

ATTORNEY Patented July 6, 1943 Werner F. Boldt, Clayton,

Mo., assignor to Wagner Electric Corporation, St. Louis, Mo., a

corporationof Delaware Application April 20, 1942, Serial No. 439,631

11 Claims. (Cl. 137-139) My invention relates to control valve mechanismand particularly to such a mechanism for controlling the flow of fluidto and from a device to beactuated.

One of the objects of my invention is to produce an improved controlvalve mechanism which can be actuated by independent operating means.

Another and more specific object of my invention is to produce a footand hand-actuated 4 control valve mechanism which, when actuated by thefoot of an operator, will function as an Otherobjects of my inventionwill become apv parent from the following description taken inconnection with the accompanying drawings in which Figure l is aschematic view of a fluid pressure system-embodying my improved controlvalve mechanism; Figure 2 is a view of the valve mechanism as viewedfrom line 2-2 of Figure 1; Figure 3 is a view of the valve mechanism asviewed from the left side of Figure 2; Figure 4 is an enlarged sectionalview taken on the line 4-4 of Figure 2; and Figure 5 is a sectional viewtaken on the line 5--5 of Figure 4.

Referring first to Figure 1, there is disclosed a fluid pressureactuating system in which is embodied my novel control valve mechanismgenerally indicated by the reference numeral I. This control valvemechanism is interposed between conduits 2 and 3, conduit 2beingconnected to a source of air pressure comprising a storage tank 4receiving air under pressure from' a compressor 5 through a conduit 6.The other conduit 3 is connected to a power cylinder I comprising acylinder 8 and a piston 9. The piston 9 is pro-- embodied in a lowercasing member I3 and an upper casing member I4. The lower casing memberis formed with four cylindrical chamber I5. 16, I1, and I8, chambers l5and I6 being in axial alignment and separated by a partition 19 andchambers I1 and 18 being in axial alignment places these chambers in.communication with each other and also connectsboth of them to conduit 3leading to the power cylinder 1.

The partition l9 between chambers l5 and I6 is provided with a passage23 and controlling this passage is a ball valve element 24 normallybiased to closed position by means of a spring 25. When this valve isclosed, communication is cut off between chamber l6 and chambers l5 andI1, and whenv it is open, fluid-under pressure may flow from the storagetank to the power cylinder.

Positioned in chamber I5 is a stem 26 provided with a piston portion 21anda packing 28. The lower end of this stem has a portion 29 projectingbeyond the piston for engaging the ball valve element 24 to unseat it.The upper end of the stem extends through a sleeve 30 into the uppercasing 14, said sleeve being guided in a hollow nut 3| which serves toclamp the upper casing l4 to the top of the lower casing I3. Interposedbetween the piston Z'Ifand sleeve 30 is a relatively strong spring 32which normally is in a substantially uncompressed condition. A secondand weaker spring 33 is interposed between piston 21 andthe partitionl9, said spring biasing the piston upwardly and to a position where theflange 34 abutting the lower end of the hollow and separated by apartition 20. Chamber I6 is ---"port 22 in the wall between chambers l5and lower portion 29 of the stem is out of engagement with the ballvalve element 24. The sleeve 30 is prevented from being moved upwardlybeyond a predetermined position by means of a The partition 20 betweenchambers I! and I8 is provided with a passage 35 and controlling thispassage is a ball valve element 36 normally biased toward a positionclosing the passage by means of a spring 31. A stem 38 is positioned in'chamber l8 and extends into the, upper casing I4, said stem beingemployed for controlling the opening and closing of the ball valveelement 36. This stem is guided in a hollow nut 39 which also serves toclamp the upper casing l4 to'the lower casing l3. Chamber I8 is providedwith an exhaust port 40 which is connected to the atmosphere by a shortconduit 4l.

Within the upper casing M are journaled two shafts 42 and 43 forcontrolling the stems in the desired manner. The upper shaft 42 extendsto the exterior of the casing on the rear side'as viewed in Figure 1 andshaft 43 extends to the forward side of the casing as viewed in Figure1; Shaft 43 carries a forked arm. 44 which overlies the upper endofsleeve 30 whereby said sleeve may be actuated when shaft 43 is rotated.As best seen in Figure 5, the upper shaft 42 has pivotally mountedthereon, by, means of a pin 45, a lever 46, said lever having one arm 41adapted for engagement with the upper end of stem 26 and another arm 48adapted for engagement with the upper end of stem 38, said arm 48carrying an adjustable screw 49. The shaft 42 is capable of actuatingthe lever 46 by means of a projection 50 which overlies said lever.

The shaft 43 carries on its outer end an arm 5| which has connectedthereto a rod 52 (Figure 1). said rod forming a connection between apedal 53 and the previously referred to lever H which is actuated by thepower cylinder. A lost motion connection 54 is provided between therod-and lever H. The outer end of shaft 42 is provided with an arm 55which is adapted to be actuated from any remote point by a Bowden wire56 having a thumb-controlled button 51. As shown in Figure 1, the buttonmay be positioned on the end of a lever 58 used to control some othermechanism. It is thus seen that there is a foot pedal control for shaft43 and a hand control for shaft When the valve mechanism is in itsinoperative condition as shown in Figure 4, the ball valve element 24will be held seated and the lower end of stem 26 will be held away fromsaid ball element by the spring 33. The sleeve 30 will be held in itsupper position where flange 34 engages the hollow nut 3| by the forcetransmitted through spring 32. When stem 26 is held in this position,the other stem 38 will be pushed downwardly by means of the forcetransmitted through lever 46, and it will hold the ball valve element 36off its seat against the force of spring 31, said spring 31 being weakerthan spring 33 which acts upon plunger 21 and stem 26. When the valveelement 24 is closed and the valve element 36 is open, the storage tankwill be disconnected from the power cylinder and said power cylinderwill be in communication with the atmosphere.

If it is now desired to actuate the power cylinder, this can be done byoperating either of the two independent operating means, namely, thefoot pedal or the button 51 of the Bowden wire. If it is desired toemploy the pedal, movement of the pedal forwardly will result in shaft43 being rotated and sleeve 30 surrounding stem 26, moved downwardly.Since spring 32 is considerably stronger than spring 33, stem 26 willalso be moved with'the sleeve. As the stem moves downwardly, spring 31will be efiective to cause the seating of the valve element 36 since thepressure is relieved on top of stem 38. When the valve element 36 isclosed, the power cylinder will be disconnected from atmosphere.'Additional movement of sleeve 30 downwardly, carrying with it the stem26, will now cause the valve element 24 to be unseated. This will permitair under pressure from the storage tank to flow to the power'cylinderand causethe piston thereof to move, which movement will result inactuation of lever ll. Movement of pedal 53 does not directly actuatelever ll due to the lost motion connection 54. However, if there shouldbe no air pressure in the tank, movement of the pedal woulddirectlyactuate lever H as soon as the lost motion of the connection 54is taken up. The lost motion, however, is sufficient to permit valveelement 36 to be closed and valve element 24 to be open before there isany direct connection between rod 52 and lever ll. When fluid pressureflows to the power cylinder, it is alsoeffective on plunger 21 and whenit has built up sufficiently to compress spring 32, the valve stemmechanism by hand, the thumb of the operator is employed to actuate thebutton 5'! of the Bowden wire. Such operation will cause shaft 42 andlever 46 to be rotated in a clockwise direction as viewed in Figure 4.Stem 26 will now be moved downwardly and valve element 36 will becomeclosed and valve element 24 will be subse-' quently opened. It is to benoted that when stem 26 is moved by the Bowden wire there will be noyieldable means in the connection between the manually-moved member andstem 26. Thus the function of the spring is eliminated and there will beno automatic metering action permitted whereby the valv element 24 willclose when a predetermined pressure is present in chamber I5. When stem26 is held down so that the valve element 24 will be held openindefinitely, the entire air pressure of the storage tank will becomeeffective in the power cylinder. The operator, however, is able toascertain the amount of air pressure which is being transmitted to thepower cylinder by feel. As pressure builds up in the power cylinder itwill also build up in chamber I5 and act on plunger 21. This in turnwill be transmitted to the thumb of the operator by means of lever 46and the Bowden wire. Thus,

by means of this feel, the operator can meter anism, th metering will beautomatic due to the compressing of spring 32. When the hand controlmechanism is employed, the automatic metering is eliminated and theoperator will depend upon manual metering which is controlled by themovement of the thumb of the hand of the operator, There has thus beenproduced a valve mechanism which has two independent manual controlmeans, one of which permits automatic metering and the other of whichpermits manual metering.

Being aware of the possibility of modifications in the particularstructure herein described without departing from the fundamentalprinciples of my invention, I do not intend that its scope be limitedexcept as set forth by the appended claims. 1

Having fully described my invention, 'what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a valve means for controlling the flow of fluid under pressurefrom a source of fluid pressure to a device to be actuated, said valvemeans comprising an inlet valve element, means including a pressureresponsive means tending to cause the closing of said valve element bythe fluid pressure admitted when the valve element is open, actuatingmeans for opening said valve element and comprising a yieldable member,and other actuating means for opening said valve element independentlyof the yieldable member.

2. In a valve means for controlling the flow of fluid under pressurefrom a source of fluid pressure to a device to be actuated, said valvemeans fluid under pressure from a source of fluid pressure to a deviceto be actuated, said valve means comprising an inlet valve element,rootoperated means for opening said valve element,

means associated with the foot-operated. means for causing automaticclosing of the valve element when a predetermined fluid pressure isadmitted to the device, and hand-operated means for opening the valveelement and maintaining it open at the will of the operator.

4. In a fluid pressure control valv mechanism, an inlet valve element, amovable member for opening the valve element and subjected to the fluidpressure admitted by the valve in such a manner as to produce a forcefor moving said member toward valve-closing position, a handactuatedmember, non-yieldable means 'for directly transmitting manual force fromthe handactuated member to the valve opening member,

8. In a fluid pressure control valve mechanism,

an inlet valve element, a stem for opening the valve element, a pistoncarried by said stem'and subject to the fluid pressure passing the valveelement, a spring for biasing the stem and piston to a valve-closedposition, a sleeve slidable on said stem at the rear of the piston, asecond spring between the sleeve and piston, a foot pedal connected to.actuate the stem through the sleeve, a second spring to thereby open thevalve element, and a hand-operated member connected to actuate the stemindependently of the sleeve and second spring.

9. In a control valve mechanism, a casing having a normally closed inletvalve and a normally open exhaust valve therein, actuating stems for thevalves; independently-operated manual V means for so controlling thestems as to open a foot-actuated memben'and means for transmitting forcefrom the pedal to the valve opening member and comprising a yieldablemeans permitting the movable member to be so moved by the fluid pressureacting thereon that the valve element can be closed thereby.

5. In a fluid pressure control valve mechanism,

an inlet valve element, a member for opening the valve element,manually-operated means for opening the valve element and comprising anon-" yieldable force transmitting connection between saidmanually-operated means and the member,

other manually-operated means for opening the valve element andcomprising a yieldable force transmitting connection between said othermanually-operated means and the member, and

said inlet valve and close said exhaust valve, a movablewall associatedwith the stem of the inlet valve and acted upon by fluid pressureadmitted by the inlet valve to thereby establish a force tending to movethe stem to a position permitting the inlet valve to be closed, andspring means interposed between the wall and one of the manual meansonly.

l()'.-In a fluid pressure control. valve mechanism, an inlet valveelement, a, stem for controlling the valve element, an exhaust valveelement, a second stem for controlling the exhaust valve element, alever for connecting the stems, a spring for normally holding the stemsand lever in position where the-inlet valve is closed and the exhaustvalve is open, a pistonv carried by the stem of the inlet valve elementand capable of being acted upon by fluid pressure; admitted by the inletvalve element, manually-operated means for causing the exhaust valve tobe closed means for producing a reaction force on the valve 4 openingmember in proportion to the fluid pressure admitted by the inlet valveelement.

6. In a fluid pressure control valve mechanism, an inlet valve element,a stem for opening the valve element, a movable wall connected to saidstem and subject to the fluid pressure passing the valve element, aspring for biasing the stem to a valve-closed position, a second springbetween the sleeve and piston, a manually-operated member for actuatingthe stem through the spring, and another manually-operated member foractuating the stem independently of the sec,- ond spring. i Y

7. In a fluidpressure control valve mechanism, an inlet valve element, astem for opening the.

valve element, a piston carried by said stem and subject to the fluidpressure passing'the valveelement, a. spring for biasing the stem andpiston to a valve-closed position, a sleeve s'lidable on said stem atthe rear of the piston, a spring between the sleeve and piston, amanually-operated member for actuating the sleeve, and an independentmanuallyoperated member for actuating the stem.

operated means when actuated applying a non-.- yieldable force to thestem of the inlet valve element, and a second manually-operated meansfor causing the exhaust valve to be closed and the inlet valve to beopen and embodyinga yieldable element through which force is transmittedto the stem of the inlet valve element; 11. In a fluid pressure controlvalve mechanism, an inlet valve element, a stemfor controlling the valveelement, an exhaust valve element, a second stem for controlling theexhaust valve element, a lever for connecting the stems, a spring fornormally holding the stems and lever in position where the inlet valveis closed and theexhaust valve is open, a piston carried by the stem ofthe inlet valve element and capable of being acted upon by fluidpressure admitted by the inlet valve element, hand-operated means forcausing the exhaust valve to be closed and the inlet valve to be opened,said hand-operated means being connected to the lever and when actuatedapplying a non-yieldable force to the stem of the inlet valve element,and a footelement.

